About Me

2018 Finishes

These quilts were finished during 2018.

Deanna's Quilt

One Block Wonder

Just a Bunch of Squares

2017 Finishes

These are what were finished during 2017.

Are you interested in seeing more of these and other quilts that I have made? Just scroll down below to where you see LABELS and then scroll down again to QUILTS, click on and all posts with finished quilts will show up. Enjoy

Thursday, February 9, 2017

My kind of basting

I think the older I get, I'm getting smarter for using tools to make quilting easier. That is the beauty of ageing.

Anyway, in the past, my knees and back used to suffer sandwiching quilts on the floor. It worked. There were no puckers on the back of my quilts. But, boy did it hurt.

Eventually, I did end up putting two folding tables together and using lots of masking tape (same as I did for the floor), but puckers were always there, no matter how much I tried to keep the backing taut.

Enter Styrofoam boards and flower pins.

This quilt is the last one that I did using this method. Binding has yet to be cut and sewn on, so no full photo of this quilt just yet.

Below photo shows two full sheets (24" x 96") of Styrofoam taped together. My dining room table is the perfect spot for this job. See those arrows? Lots of flower pins at the side and the front. I just had to be careful not to put the flower pins too deep and scratch the table.

Then, the right side of the backing was stretched slightly and pinned in place. Lots of flower pins about every 2". No pins were placed on the side that is closest to the quilt you see hanging on the wall. The batting and top were placed on top and then I could start to pin baste.

The flower pins stay pinned into the Styrofoam. The process of pin basting (using quilting safety pins) can start.

Once I moved the whole section forward towards me, I don't bother placing any flower pins where you see the arrow. Gravity does a wonderful job. Flower pins are placed on the backing (just the backing), starting on the left side and then stretching the backing slightly and more flower pins are placed on the right hand side.

At the end of machine quilting .... no puckers on the back. Wonderful.

The down side to this? Miss Ashes can't help me anymore. She is not allowed on the dining room table. Lordy, but she sure does protest this new method! LOL

Next time I sandwich another top, I will use strips of wood on my top just to make the smoothing easier each time the section is moved forward.

3 comments:

That is a good idea and might help my situation because my table is round and fills the room. I could move the chairs and open the place to put leaves and that styrofoam would square everything up ... and when not in use, could probably be stood in the back of a closet.